When positioning an instrument in a patient there is a need for being providing real-time position information relating to the instrument. Further as imaging methods for tissue most often provides images where it is not easy to identify tissue type.
The inventor of the present invention has appreciated that an improved system and method is of benefit, and has in consequence devised the present invention.
Needles are one of many devices or instruments which are placed in specific locations within a body based on pre-procedural images. The images are obtained with various modalities (imaging technologies) such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography or image reconstruction such as XperCT™. One goal of placement is to minimize damage to surrounding tissues by carefully selecting the path of the needle during placement.
With X-ray instrument guidance it is possible to allow for almost real-time monitoring of instrument guidance under for instance fluoroscopy. An optical needle is one example of a device configured to provide tissue feedback as guidance and information. The optical needle transmits an optical signal to the tissue and receives. By combining these two techniques both the instrument tip location with respect to the body as well as the display of tissue information at that location is possible.
To obtain tissue information using an optical signal optical spectra has to be acquired and processed to create the tissue information. Furthermore this information must be sent to the imaging device, linked to the instrument position in the image, and finally displayed. All these steps require an amount of time and may cause that the displayed data is no longer up to date with the actual location. Especially when the instrument is advanced relatively fast, the tissue information may be lagging behind.